Title links and snippets

Title links

“Google’s generation of title links on the Google Search results page is completely automated and takes into account both the content of a page and references to it that appear on the web.” Sources include content in <title> elements, the main visual title shown on the page and heading elements such as <h1>. They also include content in og:title meta tags and other large and prominent text.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Best practices: “Make sure every page on your site has a title specified in the <title> element”, write descriptive and concise titles, and avoid vague descriptors like “Home”. There is no length limit. The title link is truncated in results as needed.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Snippets

“Google primarily uses the content on the page to automatically determine the appropriate snippet.” It may also use the meta description when that describes the page better than other parts of the content.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

“There’s no limit on how long a meta description can be, but the snippet is truncated in Google Search results as needed, typically to fit the device width.”

Officially documented · Google Search Central

What you can and can’t control

“While we can’t manually change title links for individual sites, we’re always working to make them as relevant as possible.” Changes to title sources are noticed after Google recrawls the page, which can take a few days to a few weeks.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

• Influence: accurate <title>, a matching visible <h1>, a meta description that summarizes the page.
• Restrict: snippet length and use through nosnippet and max-snippet (Snippet controls for AI Overviews and AI Mode).
• Not available: choosing the exact title or snippet Google shows.

How this wiki does it

Each entry’s <title>, visible <h1> and og:title use the same title. Its meta description is the entry’s description field, a one-sentence summary written for that purpose.